Nº 263Design and Energy

Design.

A software update is expected to save the VW brand. A problem that appeared impossible to solve for years has been rectified within a month with a couple of program adjustments and a flow transformer, which costs only a few cents. Kudos, but, if I may say so, and as recently aptly reported by Michael Müller on Spiegel Online, this sounds a bit like the “flux capacitor” from Back to the Future, the film trilogy which also gave rise to the existence of hoverboards. But, the issue is less about doubting the speed of VW engineers and more about questioning the tardiness of management. Time and again we come across people, also outside of film, who are ahead of their time, whether this is due to speculation or the rigorous pursuit of existing opportunities. The history of electro mobility or Paul Otlet’s invention of the Internet avant la lettre are a couple of instructive examples. Developments often do not fail due to the technical possibilities or the lack of vision of individuals, but rather due to complacency and political or economic interests.

Mobility in Limbo

Text: Habib Duman

26 years ago the future was depicted as a place of floating skateboards, and the famous hoverboard from the film “Back to the Future 2” may well have inspired certain designers and manufacturers to develop similar products. As for the present-day possibilities of technology and science, we are not far from achieving the actual product itself. Electrically operated single-person vehicles such as Segways are an everyday sight in many countries and are taking mobility trends in an innovative direction.

Pure Spekulation

Narrative World Constructions

Text: Ludwig ZellerTranslation: Ludwig Zeller

At first glance speculative design seems to be a pleonasm. Every design is fundamentally speculative, investigates alternatives, variations, and strives for the preferable. And also at a second look speculative design is hard to pin down, since it wants to be more than just the anticipation of future scenarios that try an early bird domestication of emergent technologies. This task is just one part of speculative design that exists in proximity to applied product innovation.

Mach es zu deinem Projekt

Craft and Design

Text: Susanne Heinlein Translation: Bronwen Saunders

Craft is as old as human civilisation itself and craft objects are among its most important testimonials. For thousands of years, it determined the landscape of consumer goods, at least until the advent of industrialisation and mass production. However, even today large parts of the German economy still rest on the skills of highly trained specialised personnel. Whereas craftsmanship was underappreciated and denied the attention it deserves for a long time, there are signs for a trend reversal. Not least thanks to the input of design.